Sargent Shriver

[asher553]

Cross-posted at Dreams Into Lightning.
http://asher813.typepad.com/dreams_into_lightning/2011/01/sargent-shriver-1915-2011.html

I remember him as the running-mate of my parents' favored candidate, the President of Massachusetts, in 1972, when I was 9 years old. But let's learn more.

Sargent Shriver - Wikipedia.

Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. (November 9, 1915 – January 18, 2011) was an American politician and activist. Known as R. Sargent Shriver or Sarge, he is best known as part of the Kennedy family, as the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps, and as the Democratic Party's candidate for U.S. vice president — having replaced nominee Thomas Eagleton, who resigned from the ticket — during the 1972 U.S. presidential election. Shriver died at the age of 95 on January 18, 2011.

I notice that among the many worthy programs he's credited with founding, there's Head Start. A certain little girl of my acquaintance is a beneficiary of the Early Head Start program, and I dare say she's the better for it.

Fox:

Shriver served as the first Peace Corps director in the administration of his brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy. He also led President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" and was Democrat George McGovern's running mate in 1972.

"He was a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment," the Shriver family said in a statement, noting that he was surrounded by his five children, five children in-law and his 19 grandchildren.

"He lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place," the family said. "He centered everything on his faith and his family. He worked on stages both large and small but in the end, he will be best known for his love of others." ...

One of those five children, Maria Shriver, is married to California's outgoing Republican governor Arnold Shwarzenegger. She's also the author of several children's books, including What's Happening to Grandpa?, a story about a young girl and her grandfather, who has Alzheimer's disease. (Sargent Shriver announced in 2003 that he had AD.)

BBC has more.

CNN:

Shriver, whose full name was Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., was 95. He had suffered for years from Alzheimer's disease.

The family released a statement, saying Shriver died Tuesday "surrounded by his five children, five children in-law, and his 19 grandchildren."

"He lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place," the family's statement said. "He worked on stages both large and small but in the end, he will be best known for his love of others. No one ever came into his presence without feeling his passion and his enthusiasm for them."

President Barack Obama said he was "deeply saddened" over the death of Shriver, whom he called "one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation."

Go read the rest.